Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) yesterday said that he is planning to transform the agency into a higher-ranking “ministry of environment and resources” in 18 months.
In a radio interview hosted by independent journalist and filmmaker Kevin Lee (李惠仁), the minister reiterated his policies of air pollution remediation, soil contamination solutions and illegal dumping prevention.
“The EPA is no longer the ‘submissive daughter-in-law’ under the [now defunct] Department of Health and the agency should get rid of the traditional mindset to deal with increasingly diversified environmental issues. I will push for legislation authorizing the establishment of a ‘ministry of environment and resources’ within a year and establish the ministry in 18 months,” Lee Ying-yuan said.
Photo: Chang Tsung-chiu, Taipei Times
Kevin Lee said air pollution is the issue that concerns the public most, as more than 100 questions sent by Internet users asked about measures to ease air pollution.
“It is ridiculous that the public cannot breathe clean air. We plan to make the six-year Clean Air Program approved by the former administration a four-year project. The EPA will allocate an air pollution fund of NT$30 billion [US$925.9 million] to reduce ‘red level’ incidents by 20 percent in two years and by half in four years,” Lee Ying-yuan said.
According to the EPA’s four-color categorization of PM2.5 — fine particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter — “red” is the second-most severe level, corresponding to PM2.5 levels of 59 to 64 micrograms per cubic meter.
The EPA will ask the power sector to increase the use of Australian coal, which has lower sulfur content and is more environmentally friendly, despite lower energy content, he said.
The agency will also encourage factories to replace crude oil with diesel, because crude oil generates several hundred times more sulfides, Lee Ying-yuan said.
While EPA Deputy Minister Thomas Chan (詹順貴) said that a rejected Yulin County ban on bituminous coal might be accepted if the wholesale ban was revised to a partial restriction, Lee Ying-yuan said that the ban was rejected on the ground that it involved national energy management and was within the Bureau of Energy’s jurisdiction.
Lee Ying-yuan said the problem of farm contamination stems from electroplating plants, whose wastewater was on many occasions found to pollute farmland, and the problem could not be solved without removing electroplating plants from farms.
The agency will set up industry parks to separate farms from polluting industries, he said.
The minister also said he had negotiated with the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office to investigate illegal dumping of industrial waste, and mostly notably, of slag, because he suspected that licensed recyclers have colluded with illegal reprocessors, adding that efforts depend on public participation to crack down on illegal dumping.
Aftershocks from a magnitude 6.2 earthquake that struck off Yilan County at 3:45pm yesterday could reach a magnitude of 5 to 5.5, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Seismological Center technical officer Chiu Chun-ta (邱俊達) told a news conference that the epicenter of the temblor was more than 100km from Taiwan. Although predicted to measure between magnitude 5 and 5.5, the aftershocks would reach an intensity of 1 on Taiwan’s 7-tier scale, which gauges the actual effect of an earthquake, he said. The earthquake lasted longer in Taipei because the city is in a basin, he said. The quake’s epicenter was about 128.9km east-southeast
The Taipei Summer Festival is to begin tomorrow at Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕), featuring four themed firework shows and five live music performances throughout the month, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said today. The festival in the city’s Datong District (大同) is to run until Aug. 30, holding firework displays on Wednesdays and the final Saturday of the event. The first show is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by Aug. 13, 20 and 30. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Disney Pixar's movie Toy Story, the festival has partnered with Walt Disney Co (Taiwan) to host a special themed area on
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
STAY VIGILANT: People should reduce the risk of chronic liver inflammation by avoiding excessive alcohol consumption, smoking and eating pickled foods, the physician said A doctor last week urged people to look for five key warning signs of acute liver failure after popular producer-turned-entertainer Shen Yu-lin (沈玉琳) was reportedly admitted to an intensive care unit for fulminant hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is the rapid and massive death of liver cells, impairing the organ’s detoxification, metabolic, protein synthesis and bile production functions, which if left untreated has a mortality rate as high as 80 percent, according to the Web site of Advancing Clinical Treatment of Liver Disease, an international organization focused on liver disease prevention and treatment. People with hepatitis B or C are at higher risk of